Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1887-05-14

the woodwork III graceful curves and elabor-
ate floral figures in Frenchy fashion. 1t
opens into an immensely wide hall running
the length of the house, unrestricted by the
staircase, which would disigure it in two
story house, and giving full sweep to the
breeze from the gulf, which PLAYS through it
with delicious GOODNESS. This hall is the liy-
ing room Of the family. 1t is full of wide,
soft lounges and round divans i'll cool up
holstery, with tables covered with books and
pictures, cabinets crowded with rare pottery
and brio brac, bit Of the precious blue of
the Sevres, a CloiSsonne plaque, grotesuue
vases and pots filed with wild flowers, por-
traits in oil and crayon, a bronze bust of
Father Ryan, the southern poet-priest,
and innumerable articles of artistic
or reminiscential value, many Of them bear
ing pathetic reference to the period Of the
rebellion, others with stories of distinguished
people of the old and new worlds, met as
guests in this famous house or in travels
abroad-in short, place where one could
spend whole days in delightful interest with
one of the family to tell its stories. The
double parlors to the left are much the same,
filed up with quaint and old time furniture,
the walls and mantles literally hidden with
pictures and souvenirs of great men and great
events, but the whole produced with the
order of womanly presence, the conference OF
cultivated taste, and the magical touches Of
instructive interest which time and distin-
guished associations alone can give Here is
a bust in marble of the boy child killed in
Richmond during the war by a fall from
a gallery, and here again a crayon
portrait of young JEFF Davis, Jr,
who died in Memphis during the epidemic of
1878, whittier he had CALAMITY FASTENED to
nurse his sister, Mrs. Hayes, sick with yellow
fever. She recovered, but her faithful
brother was taken with the fever and
died, and with him the last male offspring
of the president of the confederacy The
rear parlor is also a library, and there the
books which overflow into every room in the
house are crowded into the shelves two and
three rows deep. Here is pointed out the por-
trait of Mrs. Dorsey, the New Orleans woman
whose will left this fine old place to Mr..
Davis for the passage of his declining years.
Here also, conspicuous upon an easel in the
center of the room, is an oil portrait OF
"Stonewall" Jackson, Early and Ewell in
council Of war upon the battlefield.
The rooms across the hall are the
sleeping apartments Of the family:
the dining room is in the wing, at whose foot,
close to the ground, is a small outlying
kitchen, its rude wallS and pent roof COM
pletely covered with a luxurious growth OF
roses in full bloom. Numerous outhouses, in
Guiding cribs, barns and q carpenter shop. are
set in the background, hidden by the trees
Two horses, some few COWS, hogs and poultry.
and the merino sheep in the farmyarl, con-
stitute the live stock of the establishment
The condition Of the soil doesn't admit of anv
farming at Beauvoir, though Mr.. Davis
personally directs the cultivation of a planta
ton which Mrs. Dorsey left to him with the
house, and which lies just opposite one of his
own ante-bellum plantations. "Brierfeld,n a,
Davis Bend, on the Mississippi river. He has
also land in Arkansas and Texas, and owns
some lots on the Mississippi Gulf coast. near
Beauvoir, which he bought before the war.
and was intending to improve upon the out
break of hostilit.es and afterwards, but was
not able to do so. This last he told me him
self, when 1 saw him in New Orleans the day
following my visit to Beauvor.
Ny conductor proved himself most in
telligent and agreeable guide. He has heen in
Mr.. Davis service for two years and told me
more, probably, of the life at Beauvoir than |
family themselves. He extended me the
courtesy, which he said was not shown 10 all
of an introduction into Mr. Davis os,ce i'm
the outlying cottage. This pla"e is truly
curious. The room is very small and the
space is further limited by an even greater
crowding of books in doubled and tripled
rows on shelves than in the library of the
main house. A large center table is strewn
with books, papers and stationery in the
greatest disorder; piles of letters and manu-
SCRIPT tied in packages and addressed to the
southern chieftain in the hands of many
famous men, are thrown carelessly in heaps
upon the floor. swinging tray full of huge
volumes of American archives takes up
much room, and the few spaces on the walls
left bare of books are covered with
faded engravings of old cathedral towers and
the like. Here Mr. Davis wrote his history
and here he does ali of his literary work.
Who can tell the value and interest of the let
tiers and papers which are scattered so reck-
lessly about7 What contributions they will
be to the work of the future historian; what
nourishing zap for political roaring and sec
tional reclimination they must containl An
'enterprising" newspaper man would have
been tempted to steal when surrounded by
this invaluable material for sensation and in
terminable controversy over dead issues and
the scratching of healing scabs.
/ sat down on the gallery surrounding this
odd literary den Of this most famous living
figure of a most momentous struggle of the
past, and looking out on the blue waters of
the Gulf of Mexico, conversed with my guide
about the life that goes on at Beauvoir. He
was thoroughly imbued with the sympathies
and sentiments of the family, and exhibited a
discretion in referring to delicate subjects
touching it which suggested the caution Of
experience in dealing with men of the press.
They are very frequent visitors at Beauvoir,
but they are received, my guide informed me-
with invariable courtesy, though their de-
and attributed utterances are not
always read with pleasure or approval.
But the correspondents are not the only
people who visit Beauvoir. There are troops
of people coming day after day. A young
mau had preceded me by few hours who
said he had come all the way from Iowa ex-
pressly to see Mr.. Davis. Parties of people |
from the north sometimes come as far as the |
gate and stop there, peering over the fence |
with gaping curiosity, afraid to enter.
ut makes me mad sometimes" said my
guide, "when | go out to them and they ask |
if Mr. Davis will see people from the north. |
The idea Of asking such a question:" he ex-
claimed, with disguised expression. "Of |
course Mr.. Davis receives everybody who |
comes to see him with pohteness.r
They come from north and south some |
times in bodies of fifty or more; during the |
year of the Exposition in New Orleans the
visitors were very numerous, and one party |
Of $50 commissioners and various state repre-
made a sudden descent upon the
place. 1t taxed the resources OF the eslai,-
lishment, but all were entertained al lunch
Indeed, no visitor is allowed TO ii, LIT wilt.-
out this meal, as there are no hotel acconlmo-
iations within five miles Of the place. One
would imagine it a severe dI am upon the re-
sources of man whose fortune is not large
this forced entertainment OF guests wuoSe
motive for the most part is the merest curios-
ty. But even the tramps know Beauvoir as
4 generous house, and their vagabond con-
has marked it as a place
where light bread, or Joe Seldom
Is the negroes facetiously call it.
5 prOffered uDOu application iuSraad of 81 |